OpenBSD strives to be the most secure UNIX derivation. Design principles, such as code auditing, extensive use of encryption, and careful configuration choices, combine to ensure OpenBSD's secure by default philosophy holds true. This article gives you a close look at the operating system so secure that it was once banned for use in a DEF CON competition, where crackers go after each other's systems.

FWIW, I, and others, am quite pleased the installer can still fit on a single floppy and, while more people might not take advantage of it, you can also do a headless installation via a serial console—and I hope this doesn’t change in the future just to appease the fashion gods. This is one of the quickest installers I’ve ever used and, to be quite honest, it does exactly what an installer is supposed to do—get the OS on the box, quickly. If I want pretty things or feel like making massive customizations, I can easily do so after the OS is installed. So, many actually consider this installer far ahead in terms of “progress in logical features which benefit … the administrator”—OpenBSD has never been geared towards the users of Windows-land.

As for the ports systems, what more do you really want than “pkg_add [enter name of software package here]” and quickly watching the software and all its dependencies get downloaded and properly installed? How much easier can they make it? Windows doesn’t even do this.

And as for updating the entire system, I’ll concur, but I don’t consider it a “total pain.” OpenBSD is somewhat known for its lack of hand holding, but you are still only a quick “cvs sync,” recompilation of the kernel and recompilation of userland away from updating. So, there are three simple steps—which can be readily automated with a little scripting.

For the tasks and user base that OpenBSD is best suited for, there is consistent progress and “it Just Works” features throughout the OS. My proverbial two cents…